Protected areas provide a wide range of services in a context of increasing pressures and a rapidly changing environment. Europe is the region with the greatest number of protected areas in the world but they are relatively small in size. Europe's Natura 2000, unique in the world and still young, and the Emerald network under development, are international European networks of protected areas that catalyse biodiversity conservation.

The European Environment Agency is compiling data about protected areas in Europe via the data flows on Natura 2000 and Nationally designated areas, reported by the countries. The material and analyses presented on these pages are based on the EEA report "Protected areas in Europe - an overview" from 2012.

Biodiversity — the variety of ecosystems, species and genes — is essential to human wellbeing,
delivering services that sustain our economies and societies. Its huge importance makes
biodiversity loss all the more troubling. European species are threatened with extinction and
overexploitation. Natural habitats continue to be lost and fragmented, and degraded by pollution
and climate change. Despite actions taken and progress made, these threats continue to impact
biodiversity in Europe. The new global and EU targets to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2020
are ambitious but achieving them will require better policy implementation, coordination across
sectors, ecosystem management approaches and a wider understanding of biodiversity's value.